Slug ejector for coin operated machines



Aug. 11, 1936. c. WEBERv A SLUG EJEGTOR FOR com OPERATED MACHINES 2 sheets-sheet 1 Filgd Dec. 10, 19:54

INV ENTOR.

94 Cr/lffaf Mer 42 MQW ATTORNEY.

Aug. M, 3936, Q. WEBER SLUG EJECTOR FOR COIN OPERATED MACHINES Filed Deo. lO, 1934 2 Sheets-Shes?I 2 ATTORNEY.

Patented Aug. ll, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT .0i-FICElv SLUG EJECTOR FOR COIN OPERATED MACHINES 4 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved slug ejecting mechanism for coin operable devices, more particularly machines operable by coins of various values.

One objectof the invention is to provide an improved means for preventing a magnetically arrested slug from obstructing the operation of the coin operable parts of the device.

Another object is to simplify the construction, and at the same time render more positive and dependable the operation of certain coin actuated parts.

Still another object is to provide improved means to expand certain wall members of the coin runway in order to discharge more effectively slugs and other undesired objects which may have been inserted into the machine.

Yet other objects, advantages and features of the invention may hereinafter appear.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a construction which is at present deemed to be a preferred embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation with parts in section, the face plate nearest the observer being removed in order to disclose the dime passage and parts adjacent thereto, the sectioning being on line I-I of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

' showing only the upper half of the device.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on line 4-4 of Fig. l. v

Fig. 5 is a side elevation with parts in section, the face plate nearest the observer being removed in order to disclose the nickel passage and parts adjacent thereto, the sectioning being on line 5-5 oi Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a vertical section on line 6-6 of Fig. 2.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the casing wherein the coin selecting elements are housed comprises the outer plates 5 and 6, and the inner plates 'i and 8. The plates 5 and 'l are in parallel spaced relation to each other in order to provide room for (among other things) a dime passage 9 between them, one edge and the top of said passage being bounded by the elongated raised spaced portion I and the opposite edge thereof being bounded by the spacer ange I I and spacer plates I2 and I3. The plates 6 and 8 are also in a parallel spaced relation to each other, the purpose of this being to provide a nickel conducting passage I4 between them.

Between the parallel, spaced inner plates 1 and 8 is a central space or chamber I5. In said space are mounted a double magnet 24 and certain other parts that aect the operation of the machine, which will vbe described later.

Returning to the dime passage 9, in the upper part thereof is mounted a slug ejector lever having at one end a linger 2I that normally restricts the width of the coin receiving slot 22, and at its opposite end a slug engaging head 23. Below said head 23 is mounted, within the cen- 10 trai chamber I5,the double magnet 24 already referred to. Said head 243 is positioned to dislodge from said magnet any slug of ferrous metal which may have beenj arrested thereby,.j; The lever 20 is pivotally supported at. 25- andis restricted in its 15 swingby means -of a .slot 26 wherein travels a .stud 2l carried by the'lever, and is restored to normal position by ai-wire spring 28 attached to the opposite side of the plate 1. The spring 28 is arranged to act upon the inner portion of the stud 20 2l, said stud having at its inner end a head 2lb to keep thespringin engagement therewith.

A short distance below the magnet 24 the plate 'I has through it a ferrous slug discharge opening 3I opposite to which is located a deilector 25 plate 32 to direct through said opening any slug which may be dislodged from the magnet 24 by the action of the lever 20. Slugs so directed are discharged from the device through the space between the inner wall plates 1 and 8.

The lower edge of the upper and inclined portion of the dime passage 9 is formed by a weight detecting plate 33 which is pivotally supported at 34, said plate having its heaviest end portion at the side of its pivot which is nearest to the coin admission slot 22; and its opposite end portion is tapered.

spaced downwardly below the pivoted plate 33 is an abutment plate 35 which partially bridges the dime passage and the upper edge of which is preferably straight, and is inclined reversely to the direction of the initial portion of said passage. The lower end of this straight edge terminates on an ear or lug 35a, and below said ear said plate is convexly curved in parallelism with an'oppositely disposed concavity with which the spacer plate I3 is provided. Said plate I3 is notched at I3a opposite to the ear 35a. A double magnet 36 within chamber I5. acts upon ferrous objects passing between the plates I3 and 35.

Wabble plates IIw are oscillably mounted adjacent the ilange II on pins lip (the holes through the plate being much larger than the pins) to slightly retard the speed of coins striking against them.

As the dime passage continues downwardly it is furnished with a coin rebounding plate 39 which has a resilient arm 39a. Below this point the slug eliminating plate 4| as viewed in Fig. 1, directs certain kinds of slugs across its slope 4| d to the right, discharging them through the discharge passage 42, while the dimes are directed across its slope 4|s to the left, to pass down the terminal portion of the dime passage. All the parts thus far described within the dime passage 9 are duplicated within the nickel passage 4, excepting the plates 39 and 4|, see Figs. 2 and 3. 'I'he slug discharge passage 42, however, voccupies the entire width of the casing between its outer plates and scavenges from the device slugs inserted as substitutes for either nickels or dimes.

In the lower part of the dime passage is mounted an escapement device which includes an upstanding weighted rack bar 45, an escapement lever 46 and an auxiliary lever 41. These two levers are pivotally mounted to cooperate with each other in such a manner that when a dime strikes the free end of the auxiliary lever said lever acts upon the escapement lever and causes the weighted rack bar 45 to be released and to gravitate downwardly the distance between two adjacent teeth thereof. Thereupon the dime will descend farther and strike the lower end portion of the pendant escapement lever, again operating the latter lever and thereby causing the bar 45 to descend another tooth. The dimes are directed against the levers 41 and 46 respectively by means of the extensions Illa and |0b with which the spacing rise is provided.

The auxiliary lever 41 is pivoted at 48 in position for its heel portion 49 to act upon an extension 50 with which the lever 46 is furnished near its pivot 5|. Said lever 46 is restored to its normal position by means of a wire spring 52.

The rack bar 45 carries a laterally extending arm |46 having an angularly directed portion |41 to serve as a finger hold for resetting the rack bar 45. With said arm cooperates a spring retracted slide |48 which is manually shiftable by means of its handle |49 towards the right (Fig. 1) against the opposition of its spring. Said slide has an inclined cam edge portion |59 which is positioned to engage the arm |46 in such a way as to afford a means to reset the rack bar by an extension of the slide. When a nickel only has been inserted the middle portion of said cam edge will engage the arm |46 at the beginning of the resetting operation. When a dime has been inserted the rack bar together with its arm |46 will descend twice as far, and the entire length of said cam edge will be utilized in the resetting operation effected by a complete extension of the slide. It is to be understood that the device is adapted to be used in conjunction with a vending machine wherein mechanism released by a partial descent of the rack bar will deliver articles valued at ve cents, and mechanism will be released by a complete descent of the slide to deliver articles Valued at ten cents. Game plays or other privileges having dual values will likewise be thus controlled.

Whenever a genuine dime is inserted into the machine it will pass downwardly through the dime passage |0 without being diverted therefrom by any of the slug detecting means, and will iinally drop into the coin receiving box 54, or other conventional coin receiver. This box is, however, shown provided with an operating rod 54a whereby it may be shifted to bring its bottom opening 54h into register with an opening 54a in the slide 54d to discharge the dimes into a receiver 54e; or said slide may be moved to bring the openings 54h and 54c into alinement and thereby discharge the dimes into the receiver 54)'.

In addition to the means which have been described for ejecting slugs of a circular character, there is provided, near the upper end of the casing, a contrivance for scavenging from the device toothpicks, pins and the like. For this purpose oppositely disposed wings 55 and 56 are hingedly mounted close to the top of the casing normally forming parts of the outer walls thereof. Each of said wings is provided near its upper edge with a plurality of small apertures 51, the apertures of one wing alining with those of the other, and also alining with apertures 58 through the casing. Through these alined apertures extend traction coil springs 59 having projecting end portions to receive rods 60 whereby the hinge structure of the wings is completed. Pins 60a are secured through the ilanges of the plates 1 and 8 adjacent to the coil springs 59 and pass loosely through fitted openings in the wings 55 and 56, to hold the wings in operative position when opening and closing.

In order to swing said wings simultaneously outward against the opposition of their hinge springs 59, within the central chamber I5 is pivotally supported at 6| a common wing operating lever 62 the free end of which projects to the outside of the casing and terminates in a suitable hand hold or grip. Said lever has oppositely disposed studs 63 which project through slots 64 provided for them through the inner walls of the casing. These studs act upon the inner cam faces of outwardly directed swells 65 in the Wings and thus force the wings farther apart when the lever is depressed from the position shown in Fig. 1. When the wings are thus swung outwardly, small articles lodged in the upper portions of the coin passages are permitted to fall from them or may be removed by the fingers or by a suitable tool.

The studs 63 of lever 62 are also positioned to act upon the two slug ejecting levers 20 at the same time that said studs act upon the wings. Therefore the depression of lever 62 will clear the machine of any ferrous slugs in either of the coin passages, which may be sustained by the magnet 24.

The lever 62 also has, within the central chamber I5, a downwardly extending arm 66 provided at its lower end with oppositely directed studs 61 which bridge the coin passages 9 and I4, slots 1s and 8s being provided through plates 1 and 8 for these studs. The two coin detecting plates 33 have lower cam edges 33e upon which said studs 61 act to oscillate said plates to free them from obstructing objects, more particularly from small moist articles like wet toothpicks. A spring 62.1: restores the lever 62 to normal position.

Nickels are admitted to the nickel passage |4 through the slot 221i, and a slot somewhat larger than the dime slot 22, and bounded above and below by parts which are substantially duplicates of those seen in the upper portion of Fig. 1.

Somewhat below the central portion of the nickel passage there is provided a pivotally mounted tiltable abutment 1|l having a positioning spring 1| connected therewith below its pivot 12, and an upwardly directed acutely angular nose portion 13 thereabove. As viewed in Fig. 5, said abutment 10 is so located, and is so adjusted on its pivot as to direct the nickels towards the right into the lower nickel passage l5, while slugs are directed towards the left into the slug exit passage 42. A spacer plate or rlse'll separates these passages.

Near the lower end of the passage 'I5 is suspended from a pivot 19 the pendant nickel operable lever which has a stud 8| extending through a slot 82 to act upon the escapement lever 46 in the dime passage. Said lever 8|) is normally held against a stop pin 83 by a spring 84. The plate or rise l0 has an inward extension wb to direct the nickels against the lower portion of the pendant lever 46.

The edge of the nickel passage I4 farthest from the nickel admission slot 22u is bounded by the spacing plate or rise 90. Near its lower end said spacing element has an angular inward extension 9| to direct the nickels against the nickel operable lever 80.

Within the lower portion of the casing a spacer block 93 bridges the entire space between the outer plates 5 and 6 with the exception of the slug discharge passage 42 through which are discharged slugs used as substitutes for either nickels or dimes. Said block 93 has a vertical passage 94 therethrough to receive with a working ilt the escapement rack bar 45. Said block is also cut away on one side to provide a downward continuation of the dime passage 9, and on the opposite side to make room for the lower nickel passage l5.

Above the spacer block 93 a iiller block 95 aids in supporting the magnet 24 and occupies parts of the center chamber I5 not required to furnish room for other purposes.

The parts 54 to 54j already described for disposing of the dimes discharged from the lower end of the casing are of sufdcient width to receive also the nickels delivered from the lower nickel passage l5, and these parts may be operated to dispose of the nickels in the same manner as the dimes.

The action of the device upon coins and coin substitutes will now be more fully described.

Genuine dimes will not be too wide or too thick to enter the admission opening 22 and will upon enteringr sai-d opening, drop upon the inclined weight detecting lever 34 and will be suiiciently supported thereby to be directed against the inner edge of the bevel face Ind to rebound suiciently to clear the scavenging opening 3|. But slugs heavier than dimes will tilt the lever 33 as indicated in dotted lines and by it will be directed through the scavenging opening 3|. A light slug will not rebound enough from the part 23 to escape the opening 3|, but will fall short of the peak 35a: oi the plate 35. A slug of the same weight and size as a dime, but of a more ferrous character would take the saine course as a dime till it reached the magnet 24 which would arrest it until the insertion of another dime would operate the scavenging lever 2D and direct such a slug into the scavenging opening 3|. A

A dime rebounding from the hammer portion 23 oi the striker 20` will roll down the inclined top edge of abutment 35 and will pass over its ear 35a. whereupon it will strike the wabble plate Hw and then move across the notch |3a and into the arcuate passage between the plates I3 and 35. Said wabble plate and notch cooperate to de'- crease the speed of the dime in order to prevent it from passing over the insulated double magnet 36 at too great a speed. The magnet 36 will also exert a retarding iniiuenee upon the dime.

A genuine dime, thus retarded, will be directed across the slope s of the segregating member 4|, but a slug of a kind not thus subjected to retardation will ystrike against the resilient nger 39a of the plate 39 and will be thereby thrown back over the slope 4|d of the member 4|, 5 whence the slug will be scavenged from the device through the passage 42.

The action of dimes upon the escapement levers 45 and 46 will be readily understood from the preceding description oi the mechanical construction.

Down to, and including the lower magnet 36 the device acts upon the nickels in the same way and by means of the same parts except that the sizes. adjustment and positions of the parts are 15 somewhat varied where this is necessary. Below the magnet 36 the nickel passage (see Fig. 5) is provided with the tlltable abutment l0 which detects whether or not the object striking it exerts the same amount of impact as that of a nickel, and also whether or not such an object is moving along the inclined path which a nickel will follow. The action of the nickels upon the escapement device through the lever 80 has already been sulciently described.

I claim:

1. In a coin selecting mechanism a housing, a pair of spaced parallel coin chutes mounted in said housing and extending in a tortuous path from near the top to near the bottom thereof, 30 the upper portion of the outer Walls of said chutes being hinged at their upper edges to form wings arranged to have their lower edges swing outwardly, coil springs connecting said Wings and acting to normally maintain the same in 35 their closed positions, openings in adjacent sides of said chutes below said wings in register, a magnet mounted between said chutes in register with said openings, an ejector lever rockably mounted in each of said chutes at the upper ends thereof and having one end partially obstructing the chute inlet openings and its other end formed in a downwardly depending head normally resting immediately above the magnet openings, slug openings in adjacent sides of the chutes immediately below the magnets, deectors mounted on the walls of the chute for deflecting slugs out of the coin chutes through the slug openings, a slug chute between the coin chutes in communication with the slug openings, a vibrating lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends in each of said coin chutes at the inlet thereof and forming a portion of the lower wall of the coin chute, a substantially T-shaped auxiliary lever rockably mounted, at one end of its horizontal leg, between said coin chutes immediately above the ejector levers and having the other end of the horizontal leg terminating without the housing and the free end of its vertical leg arranged to operatively engage the vibrating levers and rock 60 the same, studs projecting from the said auxiliary levery arranged to engage the ejector levers and said wings and operate the same when the outer end of the auxiliary lever is depressed, a repelling magnet mounted between the coin 65 chutes below the slug openings in communication with the coin chutes, a Wabble -plate in each coin chute above the last magnet for retarding the passage of coins thereby, a rebound plate mounted in one of said chutes below the repelling 70 magnet, a slug eliminator mounted below the rebound plate arranged to direct coins and slugs in opposite directions.

2. In a coin selecting mechanism a housing, a pair of spaced parallel coin chutes in said hous- 75 ing extending from near the top to near the bottom thereof. openings in adjacent sides oi' said chutes in register, a magnet mounted between said chutes in register with said openings, an ejector lever rockably mounted in each of said chutes at the upper ends thereof having one end partially obstructing the inlet openings of the chutes and its other end terminating in a head normally resting immediately above said magnet openings, slug openings in the adjacent sides of the chutes immediately below the magnet openings. defiectors on the sides of the coin chutes for deilecting slugs through said slug openings, a slug chute between the coin chutes in communication with the slug openings, a weight detector lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends in each of said coin chutes at the inlet thereof and form- .ing the lower wall thereof, a substantially T- shaped auxiliary lever rockably mounted at one end of its horizontal leg between the coin chutes immediately above the ejector levers and having its other end of the horizontal ,leg terminating without the housing and the free 'end of the vertical leg positioned to rock the weight detector levers when said auxiliary lever is depressed, a repelling magnet mounted between the coin chutes below the slug openings in communication with the coin chutes, a wabble plate in each of the coin chutes above said last magnet, a rebound member mounted in one of the chutes below the repelling magnet, and a slug eliminator mounted beneath the lower end of each chute for directing slugs out of the device.

3. In a coin selecting mechanism, a pair of spaced parallel coin chutes extending substantially vertically, the inlets to the chutes being at the top and the outlets at the bottom, openings in adjacent sides of said chutes near the upper ends thereof in register, a magnet positioned between said 4 chutes in register with said openings, ejector levers mounted at the upper ends of the chutes having one end normally restricting the inlets thereof and having their other ends terminating in downwardly depending heads normally resting above said magnet openings, slug openings in adjacent sides of said chutes below the magnet openings, deilectors on the sides of the chutes for deflecting slugs detached from said magnets by the head of the ejector levers out of the coin chutes and through the slug openings, a slug chute between the coin chutes in communication with the slug openings, a balanced weight detector lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends in each of the coin chutes at the inlet thereof and forming a portion of the lower wall of said chute, a substantially T-shaped auxiliary lever rockably mounted at one end of its horizontal leg between the coin chutes above the ejector levers and having the other end of said horizontal leg terminating in a hand member, and the free end of its vertical leg positioned to rock the weight detector levers when the hand member is depressed, a repulsion magnet positioned between said coin chutes below the slug openings in communication with the coin chutes, a wabble plate in each of the coin chutes above said last magnet, a resilient rebound member mounted in one of said coin chutes below the repulsion magnet, and a slug eliminator at the lower end of'said last mentioned chute for directing slugs from said rebound member out of the machine.

4. In a coin selecting mechanism a housing, a pair of spaced parallel coin chutes in said housing extending from near the top to near the bottom thereof, openings in adjacent sides of said chutes in register. a magnet mounted between said chutes in register with said openings, ejector levers rockably mounted in said chutes at the upper ends thereof having one end restricting the inlet of the chutes and the other end terminating in a head normally resting immediately above the magnet openings, slug openings in the sides of said coin chutes below the magnet openings, deilectors on the sides of the coin chutes for deilecting slugs from said magnet out of the coin chutes through the slug openings, a slug chute between the coin chutes in communication with the slug openings, a weight detector lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends in each of said coin chutes at the inlets thereof and forming a. portion of the lower wall thereof, asubstantially T-shaped auxiliary lever pivotally mounted at one end of its horizontal leg between the coin chutes immediately above the ejector levers and having the other end of said leg terminating without the housing and forming a hand member, and the free end of the vertical leg positioned to rock the weight detector levers when the hand member is depressed, a wabble plate in each of the coin chutes arranged to retard the speed of coins passing therethrough, openings in the sides of the chutes below said wabble plates, a repulsion magnet between the coin chutes in register with said last openings arranged to increase the speed of diamagnetic slugs passing through the coin through the coin chutes, a rebound member mounted below said repulsion magnet in one of said chutes and positioned to receive impact of diamagnetic slugs, and a slug eliminator beneath the lower end of each chute for directing slugs and coins in opposite directions.

CHRISTOF WEBER. 

